The unexpected death of fashion designer Kate Spade on Tuesday has shoppers rushing to buy her brightly colored handbags, raising prices of used merchandise several times over, second-hand online retailers said. Online fashion market Tradesy saw a sextupling of average prices, a doubling of supply and an 800 percent increase in purchases for Kate Spade handbags on the day of her death. “Whenever an artist of any kind passes, it’s a common thing that you see both demand for their products increase and average price also increase,” said Kamini Lane, chief marketing officer of the Santa Monica-based company.

Kate Spade, one of America’s most successful and admired fashion icons, has been found dead in her New York apartment in what police are said to be treating as an apparent suicide. Police confirmed the 55-year-old Spade had been found unresponsive at her home on the city’s Park Avenue. “Upon arrival, officers discovered a 55-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive,” the New York Police Department said in a statement, adding she was pronounced dead at 10.26am.